Pretty sure someone or even several people had that problem pointed out for years - and the management didn’t care for those “negativlings” and ignored the problem.
The rot starts at the top.
Pretty much all data heavy organisations use excel VERY heavily. And when nobody understands the model within them any more, they need retiring and are usually replaced with… Excel! This time with even more tabs and columns. To replace these things with computer models risks repeating the same problem the original sheet has: bus factors and complexities are hard, more so even in python/r than excel sadly. Maybe one day something will trump it, but that day is not today
SQL would like a little chat with you.
I do this for a living. I’ve spent basically my whole career (15 years full time professional at this stage) basically trying to kill excel. You can’t, or at least I can’t. You can add processes to it, you can programmatically read/write from it, but when it comes down to ditching it: every stakeholder is invested in excel. No other piece of office has the staying power that excel has, it will outlast us all
It’s surely a nightmare for long term usage but is there a software that can beat the functional reactive sort of auto updates when using spreadsheets with a few thousand rows of data? I’d have to actually use my brain to do the same thing as a pivot table in an array programming language.
Any sort of actual database will let you do it. SQL based the obvious answer, but they are all way harder to use than they should be. SQLite never got anything as good as excel sadly, and parquet still lacks a decent windows client. The WYSIWYG of excel really is so intuitive, nothing I know matches it
So Excel=cockroach?
I suspect slightly more useful than a cockroach. Believe it or not, it’s actually good at what it does. That’s why it’s still here. And also why I’m in a job, as there are plenty of things it shouldn’t be doing too
You could use a database, and SQL. Or is that crazy talk?
Yes. Your boss needs to be able to double click on an email attachment otherwise it’s like you never even did anything.
Naw other F1 teams just pay for custom data management software.
Supply chain management software exists. Do they meet f1 demands? Doubtful, but this is why you partner with a software company. They add more, you pay less, and give them some good sponsorship
Do they meet f1 demands?
If the alternative is a spreadsheet that gets updated manually, literally anything would be an improvement.
Markdown file on a shared windows drive enters the chat
But in a language like Python there are established patterns for dealing with complexity unlike Excel lol
How do the handle version control? I’m yet to actually meet it in the wild
Version control for any kind of code can be done with git if that’s what you are asking. There are other systems available too but that’s the standard for most things now.
Python in excel is in git?? Better than I thought
This doesn’t sound like an Excel problem it sounds like a management/software upkeep/bus factor problem.
I’m going to be the odd man out and say that Excel isn’t even that bad: I use it a lot for RPG simulations and engineering simulations, and not just because CSV is normalized. It can be part of the tech stack, but not in a mission critical way. There’s really no tool like it especially if you are doing simulations.
100%, excel is great for spreadsheets and garbage as a database, yet so many people keep using it as a database. I’m currently pushing for my department to transition their many “excel databases” to proper databases and I’m getting mass surprised Pikachu face because no one else knows they’re not the same.
Well if you’re trying to use Excel as a database, get them behind SQL Server or something. Hell, Access is a step up.
Using Excel outside of simulation proofs is not a wise business decision, because it means (going off my experience) institutional knowledge
Indeed, I’m pushing for SQL but work in a field that sees Excel as a huge improvement over past practices. They’re about one step removed from writing on toilet paper.
My original career was in a much more data intensive field, so I’ve become “that guy” regarding proper data storage and hygiene. Case in point: we sit directly next to IT. Every time we talk about data collection, I’ll get up on my SQL soap box and one of the IT folks will let out a comical groan.
I use Minecraft developed in-game built computers for all my parts inventory needs
excel 4 lyfe
